Parental leave

You may take parental leave to care for a child under the age of eight. This gives you the opportunity to reduce your hours for a certain period of time in order to devote more time to your child or children. You are also entitled to parental leave for adopted, foster or step-children who live with you.

You are entitled to 26 times your weekly employment hours of parental leave per child under the age of eight. This means the number of hours per week in your contract. For instance, if you are employed for 24 hours per week, you are entitled to 26 times 24 hours of parental leave. The University pays for 13 times 24 hours of your parental leave (partial pay), and the remaining 13 times 24 hours is unpaid.

Paid parental leave

You are entitled to paid parental leave if you have been employed by the University for at least one year. If so, you are entitled to 13 times your contractual hours of paid leave, and receive 62.5% of your salary for your hours of parental leave. You may not already have taken the leave while working for another employer.

The Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) of Dutch Universities specifies that this paid parental leave must be taken during a consecutive period of six months. You may take no more than half of your weekly contract hours as parental leave. However, in consultation with your manager, you may:

take leave for a longer period than six months.

take more hours of leave per week than half your weekly contract hours.

divide your leave into a maximum of three periods. Each period must be at least one month.

If your employment contract is terminated at your request or on the grounds of your conduct during your parental leave or within six months of its conclusion, you must pay back what you have received.

Paid parental leave

Unpaid parental leave

If you have been employed by the University for less than one year, you may take unpaid parental leave. If you have been working for the University for over one year you may request paid parental leave for a maximum of 13 times your weekly contract hours. If you have already taken your paid parental leave, you can still request unpaid parental leave for the remaining 13 weeks.

Unpaid parental leave

Financial consequences

Parental leave can have certain consequences:

Pension accrual

Full pension accrual continues during paid parental leave. The employer and employee contributions remain unchanged. While you are on unpaid parental leave, you yourself pay both the employer and the employee pension contributions. The PSSC Service Point can calculate the extra costs for you.

Annual leave

You do not accrue annual leave over the hours of parental leave.

Illness

In the event of illness or incapacity the parental leave will not be postponed. Payment of the parental leave remains 62.5% of your salary.

Travel expenses

Your commuting allowance is based on your actual number of working days.